Iceage, PHARMAKON

YOU, YOU

Iceage

The members of Copenhagen's Iceage are teenagers, presently 19 or so, and as with most people that age, it doesn't do any good to cite influences. Rather, Iceage mixes punk, post-punk, Goth and hardcore as if they invented it, and does such an excellent job of blending these tropes with the pent-up energy and frustration of the just-post-pubescent years of young mens' lives, that they might as well have.

New Brigade is Iceage's debut album (licensed from Escho Records of Denmark); 26 minutes of anthemic stress, of tension undiluted by worldly wisdom or amassed experience. Following a seven-inch single (recorded by Peter Peter, of the Sods and Sort Sol) and compilation track, New Brigade displays a confidence that substitutes worldly experience for the thrills of discovery, of knowing that it is possible to forge your own path in light of adults, the establishment, and prevailing wisdom telling you to do otherwise. In this tradition, New Brigade's twelve songs rush past, long enough to hit you in the chest and short enough to make you wonder what happened. YouTube shows Iceage's live shows to be frenetic, sometimes violent affairs with very little compromise in the way of sound or concept. You may get pushed around. Deal with it. This is a punk record from a punk band that plays punk shows.

PHARMAKON

PHARMAKON is the solo noise project of MARGARET CHARDIET, an unexpectedly powerful performer who's won praise for her shows all over New York. Combining ghoulish, distorted and reverberating vocals over harsh industrial beats, Brooklyn Vegan hailed her performance for its demonic possession, the spilling over of a rage so pure, powerful and misanthropic that it seized total control"-- Brooklyn Vegan